Trieste-Side Door to Europe
snatched Trieste from the Austrians and con
tinued the fort's construction, adding several
rounded sections in their own style. Return
ing, the Austrians finished their work.
When Napoleon's French took the city,
they too occupied the castle. Austria re
turned; then came the Italians, eventually the
Nazis; and at the end of World War II, New
Zealanders liberated the old fortifications.
Today at last the castle is a place of peace.
The former courtyard of the guards has be
come an open-air theater, capable of holding
10,000 spectators for operas. And on the
Bastione Fiorito (flower bastion) Triestini
sit at tables and dance under the stars, with
the panorama of the port twinkling in the
dark below them (page 824).
Italy Plus a Touch of Old Vienna
Below San Giusto Hill lies the Citta
Vecchia, Trieste's Old City, with its narrow
passages, alleys, and streets that drop down
ward and sideward. Like other places around
the Adriatic, the city's arched corners and
facades still reflect, though slightly, some in
fluence of Venice's winged lion.
Here I found an earlier Italy, a plainer
Italy, with clotheslines hung across tiny
streets, and brawny youths enjoying a siesta
in the doorways. Around a fountain im
bedded in a stone wall, five women filled
bottles while one, hands on hips, retailed the
neighborhood news. At a once-elegant win
dow an old man bent over a newspaper with
a magnifying glass. A cobbler nailed shoes
at his doorstep, and the owner of a tabac
cheria talked politics with a customer.
Cake shops, wine shops, hat shops, glove
shops ... A few occupied narrow openings in
buildings that had been the homes of better
to-do families. These families had quit the
Citta Vecchia for new apartment structures
with severe modern lines, pink and blue fronts,
and unbroken rows of windows.
A wide avenue, a two-minute walk, and I
moved from ancient Trieste to the newer.
Soon afterward I reached what was to become
my favorite part of the city-the wide, sun
splashed central square, lined with imposing
buildings on three sides.
I might almost have come to another coun
try, another civilization; despite its name,
this Piazza dell'Unita is Austria-in-Trieste,
focal spot of the long era which drastically
altered the city's fortunes (page 826). For
five centuries the city served as vital "lung,"
principal port of the widespread Hapsburg
realm.
From one of a line of open-air cafes facing
the square came the music of a Strauss waltz.
As I took a place, the couple beside me asked
for beer and Wurst. When I ordered coffee,
the waiter responded with a Latin bow, but
what he said was "Ja, mein Herr."
From the next table a plump, philosophic
looking gentleman with narrow white mus
taches guessed my thoughts.
"If you had
been here only 40 years ago, sir, you would
have thought it even more Austrian."
My elderly Italian neighbor, a retired pro
fessor, began to talk of his youth, when this
square resounded to marching feet and there
was the flash of official dress.
"It was the Austrian parade ground," he
explained. His eyes softened as he recalled
the uniformed balls, the gaiety, the reflection
of Vienna, city of light and music.
Austria had begun with a light hand, al
lowing a measure of self-management; then
slowly it exerted a stronger control. Under
the Hapsburgs, Trieste became part of an
extraordinary organization of peoples and
philosophies: Germans, Magyars, Slovenes,
Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Rumanians,
Ukrainians... Christians, Moslems, Jews.
My philosopher-companion
spread his
hands.
"It was autocracy, but generally en
lightened; bureaucracy, but efficient bureauc
racy." He stared at the walls about us. "They
have seen so much of good and bad...."
Maria Theresa's Canal Still in Use
In 1719, a happy year for Trieste, Charles
VI declared it a free port, to serve as the
empire's outlet to the world. Charles's
daughter, the shrewd, doughty Maria Theresa,
went further, slashing duties, improving the
harbor, pulling down old city walls, encourag
ing the coming of Greek and Jewish mer
chants to expand the port. Later, to make
it easier to unload ocean vessels, the Empress
ordered the digging of Trieste's Canale
Grande, a waterway reaching into the city.
A few squares away from us, that Grand
Canal continued, still useful, still ornamental.
Though reduced in length, it was lined with
many-colored small boats, busy with men
shifting nets and sails between dawn and
dark. In the quiet waters were reflected the
neoclassic pillars and high dome of the
Church of St. Anthony (page 829).
Austria's long rule was interrupted only
837